


Inhuman

by Faelain



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-26 22:14:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6257875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faelain/pseuds/Faelain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was looking for answers.</p><p>She was trying to hide.</p><p>After the fall of Afterlife, Kiva is on the run. She thought it would be easy, staying under the radar, until other Inhumans start to disappear, some of them to be found back dead.<br/>She seems to be the next Inhuman on the list when she decides to help a soldier with a metal arm.</p><p>And Hydra isn't planning to give up on their assassin and another valuable asset easily.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. World's crashing down

**Author's Note:**

> "I will find you in a burning sky  
> Where the ashes rain in your mind"
> 
> \- Sacrifice, Zella Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summer turned to winter  
> And the snow it turned to rain  
> And the rain turned into tears upon your face  
> I hardly recognized the girl you are today
> 
> \- Lost, Michael Buble

Brown Arden, said the ID-card with her picture on it. She touched the letters one by one. Arden Brown. This would be her final identity. The other cards had been burned, the information wiped out of each database in the world. Except for her first identity of course. That one still existed, only with a small addition: "Day of death: March 3, 2010." That had been the day she had slipped away from her old life and had learned the truth about her heritage.  
She wasn't really sure whether she looked like an Arden or not, but she hadn’t thought of that when she had picked the name. In the last couple of months, she had worn different names like other people wore clothes. Except, in case of damage, she hadn’t tried to repair them. She had thrown the identity away and slipped into a new one.  
Now that had come to an end. She and the others were separated now, and it was time to start a whole new life. That meant Arden Brown would be the last name she would ever possess. And Arden Brown was the kind of person who could go to NYC and get lost in the city, like the many aspiring singers and authors eventually did. This girl however, was not an artist, although she very much aspired to get lost.


	2. New York City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well nobody came to bug us,  
> Hustle us or shove us  
> So we decided to make it  
> Our home
> 
> \- New York City, John Lennon

**N** ew York is the city that never sleeps. Kiva however, craved a long nap. She felt hollow while her fingers smashed the keyboard, her eyes scanning the endless pages. Community computers were almost as bad as answering to job applications, but today was her lucky day. She could combine them and make it pure torture.  
The woman next to her yawned while she googled Craigslist. She went straight to the personals-section.  
That was all Kiva needed to know about her forty-nine-year-old neighbour, so she folded her hands around her face and forced herself to read the job description. She had been looking at the computer screen for so long now that all the words seemed to blur together, and she could barely tell if the company was looking for a dishwasher or a delivery driver.  
She closed her eyes for a few seconds, knowing that she couldn’t give up yet, because she desperately needed a job. A real job, to earn real money so she would be able to survive in the Big Apple. The problem was that she had never really applied for a job before, nor did she have a real diploma. She would have had one, if not for the guy that had suddenly stood inside her dorm room, greeted her and had grabbed her arm before she could scream. By the time she yelled, she had been standing in the middle of a strange, Chinese looking village. That day had been the third of March 2010, the day Arden had unwillingly said goodbye to chemistry and had welcomed a whole new world. Yet she couldn’t imagine how her life would have been if they had never found her. She would probably be graduated by now, working for some large company as an analyst or a laboratory worker. Her life would be stable and peaceful, and yet she had never regretted the discovery of her true heritage.  
The truth wasn’t simple at first. The elders of the village had told her she was a human, but had the potential to be more than that. Inhuman, they had called it, because they believed her to be the offspring of some alien experiments, who had embedded into the genetic code of her ancestors the potential to transform and acquire superhuman abilities. At the first she had told them to fuck off. They had only laughed. Every day, the guy who had kidnapped her had come to talk to her. He turned out to be called Gordon. He was born in Afterlife, the settlement were the Inhumans could live in peace, far away from the authorities. Gordon had only been very young when he had received his Inhuman powers. He told her about his fear, when he discovered that he had lost his eyes during the transition, to trade them to be able to travel to any place imaginable. He also told her about his hidden regret, for he would never be able to truly see the places he visited.  
Gordon had become her first friend in Afterlife, and he was the one who had convinced her to stay and train with the others of her kind. That had been almost five years ago. Kiva had prepared herself for Terrigenesis, the process to activate her Inhuman genes, and even though some of the elders thought her to be too old for transition, Gordon had convinced them that she would be able to handle it. Kiva had only been a few days away from becoming a true Inhuman. But then that S.H.I.E.L.D. agent had intruded their peaceful society, and the others had come not long after her arrival. In mere seconds, Afterlife had been destroyed and Kiva and the others had been forced to disappear.  
She sighed and rested with her head on her hand palms.  
‘Is everything all right, miss?’ She turned around. Behind her stood a tall man with short brown hair and an easy smile on his face. He seemed vaguely familiar. Kiva nodded and answered with a short “sure” before she returned her attention to the computer. The man didn’t give up that easily.  
‘Hi, I’m Lee Woods, apartment eleven-o-five. I’m your neighbour. I saw you moving in a couple of days ago and – are you looking for a job? You know, I do know a guy who could maybe…’ He paused when the light bulbs above them flickered. Then they blacked out. A mere second later, so did all the computer screens. Kiva payed no attention to the shocked and angry noises the other people in the room made. She grabbed her login badge, heart pounding while she stood up and slipped away from the room. It could be just a power breakdown, she knew that, but she couldn’t cross out the possibility that S.H.I.E.L.D. had found them. As soon as the door of the computer room closed behind her, she ran to the hallway. Luckily, the emergency lights shone a cold light through the hallway, so Kiva could see where to go. Usually she would use the lift, but now she would have to take the stairs. To an apartment on the eleventh floor. Needless to say, Kiva wasn’t really pumped. S.H.I.E.L.D. could be waiting for her on each floor, and she would probably be too tired to fight back.  
‘Hey!’ a voice shouted. Kiva opened the door that led to the stairs and started to run. Yet she heard the door open again, and not long after she heard someone running behind her. She tried to speed up, but the other person seemed to move faster than she could. ‘Hey!’ he grabbed her arm and she almost fell, but he steadied her. She turned, ready to hit him, but she paused when she saw his dimly lit face.  
‘Oh. Hey Lee.’  
‘What’s wrong? You ran like you were chased by the devil himself.’ Yet you ran faster, she thought.  
‘It’s just that my brother is afraid of the dark. He’s probably freaking out right now.’ He seemed to believe her, because he let her go and looked pretty embarrassed.  
‘I’m sorry, is there anything I could do to help?’ Kiva’s answer was short.  
‘No. I’ll handle it.’ She continued her way up, and while Lee didn’t say anything more, she did hear him walking after her. She didn’t know what she should think about that and was relieved when she finally arrived on the right floor. She didn’t pay any attention to Lee, who was walking behind her, and opened the door to apartment 1107. As soon as she was inside, she locked it again. She sighed.  
Then she heard a gun click.

  
‘James?’ she asked, trying to stay calm while she slowly raised her hands.  
‘Really Kiva, _James_? Just say Henri, I will never get used to James. Why are the lights out?’ Kiva held her hands in front of her eyes when a bright light shone in her face.  
‘Put out the damned flashlight, kid. It’s probably just a power breakdown. And I’m Arden.’ Henri put the flashlight on the table, so it could lighten the room dimly.  
‘You know, you can be very annoying when we’re undercover, Kiva.’ Kiva sighed, turned her back to him and tried to peek through the keyhole. Henri stared blankly at her, like he was used to behaviour like this.  
‘What are you doing?’  
‘Hush! I’m checking whether Lee is still standing in the hallway.’ Henri walked towards her and leant against the door. ‘And who is Lee again?’  
‘He’s our neighbour. He was standing behind me when I was on the computer and said he watched us moving in here, asked about me applying for a job and followed me all the way up here on the stairs.’  
‘So our neighbour was making small talk with you and went to his room during a power breakdown? He totally sounds like an assassin. Take my gun, you mighty detective, and finish him off.’ Kiva straightened her back and turned towards him. Before she could answer, the lights turned on again.  
‘I guess the power is back on.’  
‘No shit, Sherlock.’  
‘Come on, _James-Henri_. I’ve had a rough time too. I’m not in the mood for fighting.’ She rubbed through his hair and went to the couch. Henri walked behind her. He was still only a kid, but sometimes he seemed older than she was. He was an Inhuman who had already went through Terrigenesis, which had made him a marksman – he couldn’t miss anything he aimed for. That was why he was the one who carried a gun around. After they had fled Afterlife, Kiva had been appointed as Henri’s guardian, because of their similar complexion of dark hair and pale eyes. The others had reasoned that they could pass easily as brother and sister. If it would come to a fight, Henri would probably be the one who guarded Kiva. As long as she didn’t go through Terrigenesis, she would only be as strong as a regular human being, and not even properly trained in martial arts.  
‘You, know, you were right. James-Henri Brown was a stupid name.’ Kiva smiled.  
‘I told you that you would sound like a butler.’ Henri snorted and sat down on a chair that was standing against the wall.  
‘Did you find a job?’  
‘I don’t know. Maybe. I sent out some applications before the computer crashed. But I guess that it doesn’t really guarantee anything. These computers suck.’  
‘You do know that you could buy your own laptop, right? Or you know, you could break the crystal. Go through Terrigenesis. Maybe your touch will turn everything to gold or something. Then we would could go to Europe in no time.’ Kiva’s hand travels to the small box that hung on a cord around her neck. It contained one of the Terrigen crystals. She had taken it from Jiayings desk, not long before S.H.I.E.L.D. had attacked.  
‘I could also accidentally blow this building up. Or maybe there would grow horns out of my head. I don’t think I will get many job offers when I look like that.’  
‘So you mean that your true self would be revealed?’ Henri grinned. Kiva watched him sceptically. ‘A deer?’  
‘The devil.’ Henri said snootily. Kiva laughed and threw a pillow at his head. Henri dodged it easily. The smile on his face died and he sighed. ‘I’m bored, Kiva. Always being in this place – the television programs are boring, my drawing book is almost full and there are only seven songs on the IPod you got me. I want to go outside.’  
‘You can always go to school you know. You still want to be an architect, don’t you?’ Henri was silent and stared to the ground. ‘I don’t want to go to school yet. It would be too surreal.’  
Kiva understood that. ‘But maybe you could use the distraction.’ Henri hummed, but he didn’t seem very convinced.  
‘Or you could apply for a really cool job. Like at Stark Industries. Aren’t you a genius? They would probably want a smart chemist like you.’  
‘I don’t think that could possibly work out. I dropped out during my master – and that’s not even on Arden Brown’s file. They would probably realise that it’s a fake identity anyway. Besides – I’m not really looking forward to working in a building that got attacked by freaking aliens.’  
‘You are part alien yourself, so you really should think of that as a family visit. And you know, lightning never strikes the same place twice.’  
‘Trust me, it does. If you went to school, you would know that.’  
‘We can’t all be chemistry geniuses.’  
‘It’s actually basic physics.’ Henri didn’t answer that. He stood up and walked over to the window. He opened the curtain and stared outside.  
‘I wish the others were here. Gordon. Liv. Talia. Ingrid. Lincoln.’ For a moment he sounded really young and Kiva remembered how hard all of this had to be for him. She had had a life before she went to Afterlife – he had lived there for as long as he could remember, and now it was gone.  
‘Me too.’  
They both tried to forget that Gordon was dead, and that Lincoln was a traitor, who had supported the woman who had ratted out the Inhuman’s location to S.H.I.E.L.D.


	3. Vintage wine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mortal kings are ruling castles  
> Welcome to my world of fun  
> Liars settle into sockets  
> Flip the switch and watch them run
> 
> \- Emperor's New Clothes, Panic! At the disco.

**S** he did end up working at Stark Tower. Well, only temporarily, but still. Kiva could only think about the way her young housemate would react when he found out. She didn't exactly look forward to seeing his smug smile. The secretary at the door had smiled when she had entered the building and after Kiva had told her she was Arden Brown, the new waitress of caterer Dawson, the other woman had nodded and asked her to sign a paper. Kiva had thought it to be some sort of contract, but it just seemed to be an attendance record. She signed next to her name. There were only four other names on the list. The secretary took the list out of her hands and put it on her desk. Kiva’s eyes glanced at the label on the woman’s shirt, which said SHARON. After Sharon had straightened some pencils, she asked Kiva to follow her. She walked her towards the lift, pressed the button and when the doors opened, she followed Kiva inside. Sharon didn’t prove to be very talkative, for she said nothing and studied the ground intensely. When the lift stopped, Sharon gave her a shy smile and told her that she had arrived. Kiva thanked her and walked past the doors. The lift was connected straight to the room where the party was being held. The interior screamed extremely expensive!, but it was the beautiful view of Manhattan that made Kiva speechless. Somehow it reminded her of Afterlife, although the skyscrapers and the mountains were nothing alike. 'Hey there! You must be Lee's friend! Auden Brown, wasn’t it? I’m Jonathan Dawson, but you can call me John, everyone does that.’ Her new boss shook her hand. He seemed to be in his mid-fifties and had a friendly, round face. His cheeks were extremely red and his forehead was slightly wet. Kiva smiled uncomfortably: ‘Hello s- John, nice to meet you. And it’s Arden, actually. And Lee is my neighbour, I don’t know him very -’ ‘Oh. Is Arden a girl's name nowadays? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be impolite. I'm very happy to meet you, miss Brown. You have never worked for a catering service before, have you? Lee said something like that. He also said you were a hard worker. I've known him since he was a kid, you know. Honest guy. And a handsome chap too, isn’t he?’ She hadn't expected to hear her boss praise her neighbour for ten minutes straight, but it happened anyway. ‘He is a very kind man.’ John nodded and seemed very pleased with her answer. ‘He surely is, dear. Oh, there’s miss Potts, I have to talk to her for a second – Layla will show you around and explain to you what you can expect this evening. Layla? Could you take care of Auden please?’ Kiva turned towards the way John had yelled and there, at the bar, four blond girls were cleaning up. One of them was looking at her and waved her closer. ‘Hi! I’m Layla, and this is Teresa, Jennifer, and Mila is standing next to the coffee machine. You’re Auden, right? Have you ever worked in a bar before? No? Well I guess you could clean up the tables and stuff – that’s not really difficult. If it’s not too busy, I could show you how to make some beverages – oh Jen? The Bombay is still in the car, would you mind helping me carry it?’ She disappeared before Kiva had been able to say anything. Teresa smiled at her when she noticed her uneasiness and gave her an apron. ‘You don’t need to worry, everything will be all right. Stark’s parties used to be very… interesting, but nowadays you can almost call them boring.’ ‘Oh, but in case someone vomits, the new girl has to clean it up,’ Mila added. She pointed towards a bucket and a rag that were standing next to empty crates. ‘I’m already looking forward to it.’ Teresa laughed. ‘If we’re lucky, maybe some of the Avengers will attend.’ ‘Well, mister Stark’s here, so that’s at least one,’ Mila said. She made a disapproving noise when she saw Kiva tying the knot of the apron. ‘If you do it like that, it will fall off in no time. Wait, I’ll show it to you.’ Mila tied the knot and Kiva gave her a grateful smile. Not much later, after Jennifer and Layla had returned, the guests started to arrive. Kiva helped the other girls, who served the guests when they came to the bar and gossiped about them as soon as they turned their backs. ‘Do you see that brown-haired woman over there, who’s wearing the green dress? Well, that’s Maria Hill – she used to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. You know that the S.H.I.E.L.D. officials were taken into custody and subjected to rigorous questioning after everything that happened in Washington DC, right? Well, now she works for Stark Industries – but she’s still under high level surveillance by multiple agencies. Crazy, right?’ Kiva nodded and watched the woman carefully. It seemed like the former agent would turn around any moment and expose Kiva as an Inhuman. Kiva lowered her glance when Hill turned and said to herself that she was being ridiculous. Yet suddenly, the Terrigen crystal beneath her clothes seemed like a very, very bad idea.

‘Could you go and collect the empty glasses? We’re running out. Over there is a platter you can use.’ Kiva grabbed it and walked to the tables, even though she carefully avoided the one where Maria Hill was standing. The other guests were laughing and drinking, some handed her their glasses with a smile, others asked for a refill, but most of them ignored her.  
She almost dropped her platter when someone bumped into her.  
‘I don’t like the way he looks, Pepper, are you sure you have to…’ The woman interrupted him - Kiva felt herself turning red when she recognised Tony Stark - and spoke to Kiva in a friendly voice. ‘Are you alright?’  
‘I am, thank you. I’m really sorry, I should have looked more carefully.’  
Pepper Pots smiled. ‘It’s alright, you couldn’t help it, it was our fault.’ Kiva didn’t really know what she had to say so she just smiled.  
‘For some reason, it always ends up being my fault’, Tony rolled his eyes while he put his empty champagne glass on her platter. Then he turned his full attention back to Pepper. ‘I really don’t think we – you need him to make Stark Industries grow.’ He pushed Pepper away from Kiva and the other guests. Pepper said something to silent for Kiva to understand, and in response Tony gave her a short look, before shrugging.  
After that Kiva tried to keep low profile, she didn’t look any guest in the eye and only spoke when it was really necessary. Her job consisted of clearing tables and washing dishes. The other girls were flirting with the guests while pouring their drinks. Kiva noticed more than once that the other girls received tips – which they hastily hid in the back pockets of their pants. Kiva hadn’t gotten any tips, and she doubted she would receive then this evening. After all, people usually didn’t leave them in empty glasses. Yet she didn’t really mind that, although she could use the extra money.  
Even though washing dishes wasn’t very entertaining, observing the guests was. Most of them were extremely rich entrepreneurs, men in fancy suits flanked by women wearing expensive dresses. Others just worked for Stark Enterprises, like Maria Hill, and they mingled with the entrepreneurs. Kiva was most interested in the corner of the room, were a red haired woman and a muscular man sat quietly in conversation. The others had alerted her of their presence as soon as they had entered the room, but Kiva would have recognised them even without Layla’s fangirling. Even in Afterlife the Avengers were heroes, so Kiva couldn’t help but being star struck when she saw that besides Iron Man, Hawkeye and Black Widow were also casually being in the same room as she was. She didn’t dare to go near them though, just like she didn’t dare to go near Maria Hill.  
The Avengers had worked together with S.H.I.E.L.D. in the past after all and Kiva just knew the organisation still kept tabs on them.  
When she did her next table clearing round, she noticed some forgotten glasses on the table next to the two Avengers. She put her platter on the table and overheard their conversation.  
Black Widow spoke with a distinct irritated tone: ‘He was planning to, but he couldn’t come – he said he had to help Steve with something.’  
‘Again? What’s Spangles up to?’ the other asked. He slowly made the fluid in his glass spin.  
‘I don’t know for sure, Clint – he’s hiding it damned well, I have to give credit to that fossil.’  
‘Natasha Romanoff can’t discover a secret? Ooh. That’s why you’re so pissed off lately.’  
She snorted. ‘Steve isn’t that good. I know that he’s looking for the Winter Soldier. I just don’t know how he could possibly think that Sam is better acquired for that kind of job than I am.’  
It was quiet for a while and Kiva slowly grabbed the platter.  
‘Do you really think he’s still looking for –’ Clint was interrupted abruptly by Natasha.  
‘Did they never told you that eavesdropping is impolite?’ Clint turned his head and stared at Kiva, who had almost dropped her platter when Natasha had spoken directly to her.  
‘I’m – I’m really sorry, I was just curious.’ Kiva tried to go away, but Natasha was already standing next to her.  
‘Who are you?’ the Russian spy asked. ‘Arden Brown’, Kiva said without any hesitation.  
‘Is that so?’ Natasha’s eyes seemed to scan Kiva, ‘What’s in the box?’  
The Inhuman girl tried to stay calm, but her hands closed around the box, like that could protect the Terrigen crystal from being discovered.  
‘Blood’, she answered. Natasha Romanov’s face twisted to disbelief. ‘Blood?’  
‘Yes’, Kiva looked down, pretending that saying it out loud embarrassed her. ‘My parents used to be big fans of Angelina Jolie. My- my mother made me promise at her deathbed to wear it every day.’ Kiva’s heart was beating so loud that Black Widow could probably hear it, that she would take the box from her and expose her lies. What if the redhead accidentally broke the crystal?

  
Natasha frowned and stepped away from the waitress with the unnerving blue eyes. The girl took it as a sign too disappear into the crowd. Natasha watched her going to the bar, where one of the other waitresses seemed to overwhelm her with questions as soon she arrived. The Russian spy frowned.  
'That was pretty harsh.' Clint told her back.  
'You too would act pretty harsh if the government was trying to find a reason to throw you in jail. She could have easily been a spy.'  
Clint grinned and took a sip of his drink. 'That's true, I guess. But not every new face you see is trying to get you killed.'  
'No', Natasha agreed, 'Some old faces are trying to achieve that too.'  
Clint just laughed. 'You used to be a lot more fun at parties, Nat.' Then he became more serious. 'If, you know, you want to talk about Banner, remember that I'm your friend, okay? I'm here for you.'  
That touched a nerve and for some reason, she couldn't look Clint in the eye. 'There isn't much too say. He's still missing.'  
Clint tried to say something, but she didn't give him a chance.  
'I have to go back to the Avengers facility. Wanda and Vision are probably in desperate need of a chaperone.'  
Clint almost choked. 'What?'  
Natasha turned around and gave him a disappointed look.  
'Please, _Hawkeye_ , everyone saw that coming from miles away.'  
She kept silent for a second and added: 'I guess your hawkeyes were probably too distracted by her pretty face to see that Arden Brown was lying.'


	4. Flaw in my code

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You can't wake up,   
> this is not a dream,  
> You're part of a machine,  
> you are not a human being.  
> \- Gasoline, Halsey

**K** iva watched how Henri, armed with safety glasses, a protective ear set and a .22 semi-automatic rifle, got a short recap on how he should aim to the target. The instructor was so huge that Henri barely looked like a toddler. She smiled at the thought and put her hands on her hips.

Henri raised the weapon and pointed it towards the human-shaped target. The instructor supported the boy’s shoulder to help him absorb the shocks of the shots. Henri pulled the trigger. Even behind the thick glass, the gunshots still resounded clearly in Kiva's ears. Unsurprisingly, Henri hit the bull’s-eye. Once. Twice. Trice. F-

Someone standing next to her whistled. ‘Your brother is quite a marksman, isn’t he?’ Kiva recognised the voice before she had turned her head.

‘Lee, hi! What a pleasant surprise to meet you here.’ She hoped her smile seemed more sincere to him than it felt to her. ‘He’s just lucky,’ she added, with a nonchalant flick of her fingers.

The man next to her crossed his arms and frowned. ‘On the contrary, I think he’s simply extremely talented.’ Kiva’s jaw tensed, but she tried to relax. In the end, Henri’s gift didn’t exactly scream I-N-H-U-M-A-N – unless they would pay attention to his eyes, of course - but she also didn’t want to draw too much attention to the both of them. But Henri didn’t know that he was being watched, and Kiva flinched every time he made the perfect hit. In the end, there was only one hole in the target, between the lines that drew the heart area of the paper human. Lee whistled again and his lip made an approving curl. ‘Like I said, I think he’s quite talented.’ Henri followed the instructor to the room where Lee and Kiva were standing. The instructor complimented Henri on his aim.

‘You should come here more often,’ the man said, and Henri shot Kiva a hopeful glance. She nodded at him, and she hoped it would be possible to put aside enough money to let Henri come here on a regular basis. She knew that he liked to blow off some steam this way, and even though she had also bought him a sketchbook and a whole collection of pencils this week, it seemed to be harsh to deny him to do the things he liked.

‘Come on James – it’s time to go back home.’ Kiva motioned Henri, who shot his instructor a quick smile and walked towards her and Lee. It still felt odd to connect the apartment to the word “home”. Home always seemed to mean Afterlife, while “The Apartment” seemed to equal the ninth circle of Hell.

‘Bye, Lee,’ Kiva smiled and reached out to grab her bag. Lee was faster, and handed it to her.

‘I can walk with you.’ Henri shot Kiva a puzzled glance. She didn’t hesitate for a moment.

‘Are you sure? Don’t you have to look around anymore? We don’t want to inconvenience you.’

‘I already did and I found what I needed. It’s no trouble, really.’ Lee smiled and opened the door for them and they walked through. It was only a fifteen-minute walk back to the apartment, but the first couple of minutes, none of them spoke.

‘How’s Jonathan?’ Lee asked. Kiva wondered if he was really interested, or just didn’t like long silences.

‘He’s a kind man. I really like working for him.’ She stared at the street stones. Henri’s shoulder bumped into her each time they passed by a lamppost.

‘He told me that you’re a hard worker, and that the others really liked you,’ Lee grinned. Kiva noticed how he kept touching the buttons on his sleeve.

‘What do you do for work, Lee?’ Henri asked. ‘I’m a real estate manager.’ ‘Oh,’ Henri said, ‘so you sell houses? I would like to be an architect. Kiva says I should become a civil engineer, but I’d rather be an architect. I think.’ Lee smiled and his head lifted when their apartment block came in sight. ‘Always remember that you should do what you would like to do, kid.’ Kiva noticed how Henri’s face became cross when Lee called him a kid.

‘James, we have to hurry. I have to do – something.’ They walked inside the building and Lee pressed the lift button. They were quiet until the lift reached their floor. Lee let them get out first. Then he walked to his room. Yet he suddenly paused and ran his hand through his hair.

‘Arden?’ She turned around. ‘Would you like to go out with me? We could grab something to eat, tonight at seven?’ Kiva was stunned, but Henri gave her a push and she heard herself say ‘Yes?’

‘Can I come too?’ Henri asked, and he gave Lee a sweet smile. Lee’s smile didn’t falter. ‘Sure you can! We will have fun.’ Kiva was still staring confusedly at him when Henri pulled her into their apartment and clapped his hands. ‘You were right, Kiva. He’s definitely the man to murder us in our sleep.’

‘If you keep being so sarcastic, I’ll delete the seven songs on your iPod.’

 

‘I wonder where we’re going to eat’, Henri said, hanging lazily on the couch with his sketchbook on his left knee. With slow strokes he drew the shadows on the mountains, with a realism that vied with photographs. Kiva was emptying the last box, containing pictures and books. She put them on the dresser, in an attempt to make The Apartment more like a home.

‘I hope nothing to fancy.’

‘Why not? It’s a date. It should be fancy’, he murmured absently. ‘Well, usually you don’t bring your fake kid brother with you on a date, so I don’t think we can even call it “a date”.’ Henri made a muffled sound and said something under his breath about her cooking skills. Kiva ignored that, because he was probably right. Lee proved to be a very punctual man. At exactly seven o’ clock they heard a short knock on the door. Henri opened it. Kiva grabbed her bag and smiled at Lee when she walked out of the door. She relaxed a little when she noticed he was wearing jeans. It would have been rather awkward if he was wearing a suit and she and Henri just simple summer clothes.

‘I hope you like Italian food? I have reserved a table for us,’ Lee seemed more relaxed than this morning, Kiva noticed as she nodded. ‘I love pizza!’ Henri said enthusiastically. The restaurant had only four tables, from which two were put next to each other so Lee, Kiva and Henri could sit together. Henri sat next to Kiva, who was facing Lee. The waiter lit the four candles on the table before he gave them the menu’s. The pages had green, white and red colours, and Kiva only realised on page four that it meant to represent the Italian flag. The waiter later returned with a bottle of wine and a glass soda, and asked them if they had already decided what to eat.

‘I would like a pizza Hawaii, without pineapple please’, Henri asked. He poked Kiva under the table, and it was almost as if he had said his thoughts aloud. _Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to put fruit on pizza?_ She made a snorting sound and pointed to a pasta with way too many accents on the name. The waiter gave her a weird look and scribbled her order down. Lee ordered in fluent Italian.

‘Where did you learn that?’ Kiva asked him when the waiter was gone. ‘At work.’ Lee said, playing with his fork. He was nervous again, which seemed odd to her. He didn’t spoke much before dinner arrived, and when he did he just ate quietly. Henri hummed while he was gorging the pizza and Kiva just figured she was the only one who was feeling rather awkward.

‘I’m really sorry, but I have a proposition for you, and I’m not really sure how I should start,’ Lee said. To Kiva’s surprise he was talking directly to Henri. ‘I’m not _really_ a real estate agent. I’m a part of a secret agency that’s always willing to train gifted youngsters like you, Henri. I haven’t discussed this yet with my superiors yet, but your accuracy with a gun is unbelievable and I know that you could pass the tests to apply easily. If you’d want, we could give you a scholarship and in time you could become one of our agents. Of course we would make sure that your sister is always safe and-’

‘What agency?’ Kiva interrupted. She noticed how Henri tried to keep a straight face, but the gleam in his eyes told her enough. Henri surely wanted to be an architect, but which boy of his age didn’t secretly dream of becoming an agent of a secret agency? Lee shifted. ‘Well, we had some bad publicity lately, but we’ve reformed now. The agency I’m part of you might know as S.H.I.E.L.D., but since everything that happened last year, we’ve cleansed our ranks and are looking for new talent and –’

‘You think I’d let my brother be a part of an agency that was almost responsible for the destruction of our capital?’ Kiva was surprised with how steady her voice sounded. Henri’s face was pale. She wondered if he too saw S.H.I.E.L.D.S.’ helicarrier fly over Afterlife. Remembered how fast they had packed with the others after Gordon had come to warn them, and the gunshots that had pierced Afterlife’s peaceful silence just before they were forced away. They hadn’t heard from their friends ever since. Henri didn’t know whether his mother lived or was murdered. ‘I swear to you that this is in the past. We were infiltrated and-‘ ‘No!’ Henri yelled, hard enough to draw the attention of other customers, ‘no! I don’t want this! I-’ Kiva dug her nails inside his legs, which silenced him, although his breath was still unsteady. ‘I’m really sorry Lee, but we can’t do this. Goodnight.’ She took her wallet and put enough money on the table to pay for both their meals, while Lee protested. Henri took her hand when they had left the restaurant long behind them and together they watched the dark night above the skyscrapers.

_________

 

He was trying to remember. He was trying to be human. He felt like he was failing at both. Memories lived scattered in his mind, some strange and vague, others dark and familiar.

_‘Herr Barnes… Fist of Hydra.’_

He stepped past the low fence that edged the churchyard.

_‘Please, please spare my daughter. She hasn’t done anything –’_

He had silenced her by pulling the trigger. He remembered that. He also remembered stepping over her body, and silencing her screaming daughter in the same way. She couldn’t have been older than eleven. Eleven, and already a target. He didn’t even know why. He had only known their names and their faces when they were assigned to hem as his next mission. It was very easy to picture those names on the gravestones he passed by.

Only they weren’t buried. He had made sure of that. _Ready to comply._

His head started to spin and he couldn’t stop it. Shadows were moving, the cold ready to swallow him, and the whispering trees demanded him for mission reports.

 _It’s not real_ , he reminded himself, focusing on the rising sun warming his skin and a forgotten song the wind blew towards him. _It’s over now_.

Two gravestones stood side by side. _George Madison Barnes_ , the first one said, _Winifred C. Barnes, née Hubbard_ , the other one. He stared at the names, tried to picture them, seeing them as clearly as he could see his victims, but it felt like he was staring at the names of strangers.

 _I know them_ , he reminded his broken memories, _I know them_. The longer he stood there, the less certain he came to be about that statement. He let out a breath and turned around. _This had been a terrible idea_.

He went back to the gate, his eyes habitually searching for clues and faces in this known-unknown place. Like a machine, carefully programmed. _Not actually human. Not anymore._

One grave drew his attention. _cr l Rogers_ , it said, first name unreadable because of the ruptures in the stone. Next to it stood a similar gravestone, name unreadable. _Rogers. Rogers. Steven. Steve._ He remembered him, scrawny but never afraid. Rebecca had smiled when she had found the portrait of her that Steve had drawn for her birthday.

 _Rebecca. Rebecca was his sister._ It seemed to be the most valuable piece of information he had ever gotten. When he passed by an alley, he stopped. It was familiar, although not as familiar as he would have liked it to be.

 _‘Sometimes I think you like getting punched.’_ The memory slowly unfolded and he felt like something heavy removed itself from his chest.

He was just a simple guy from Brooklyn.

At last, he was home.


End file.
